Wednesday, April 6th, 2005

SIN CITY

To top of my dizzy weekend of noir, I finished up by seeing SIN CITY. I realize that everyone and their dog on the internet is raving about this film?..I however have very mixed emotions about it. Don?t get me wrong, it looks amazing. The black and white images are to die for. I loved the effect of having splashes of color on the screen like an all black and white scene with a crimson red dress. It was eye candy at its finest. The problem I had with the film is the characters. I found myself so uninterested in the characters and I didn?t care if ALL of them were killed. To me it is the characters and the story that make a film compelling?not the visuals and special effects. For my money the most terrifying scene I?ve EVER witnessed on film was the scene in JAWS where they are on the boat getting drunk and Quint starts talking about the SS Indianapolis and about what happened when they all went into the water. The look in his eyes during that scene and the expressions that drift across the faces of the other characters is what makes the entire thing truly terrifying and THAT is what makes it work so well. I didn?t feel any of that emotion in SIN CITY. I wanted to. I honestly did?.and I waited to?but it just never happened. This may sound strange, but I really wished there was one character in the film that didn?t condone or participate in any of the violence. I wish there would have been a person who contradicted the very nature of SIN CITY and dared to challenge it in some way. For example in THE PLAYER the only person in the film who is really pure and has good intentions and loves movies is the one who suffers the most and gets fired in the end. Her character really redeemed that film for me and made me not only care about that character, but it stood out in such stark contrast to all of the other power-hungry shallow characters around her. She alone gave the film heart. Yes, she suffered for it in the end as the ?sacrificial lamb? as it were?.but it all really made an impact that I would never have felt otherwise.

I guess for me, SIN CITY was incredible to look at but empty and hollow emotionally at the end of the day. I?ve already gotten in a few big discussions about this with some FilmRadar fans. Now I never claim to have all the answers or to know everything?.because I certainly don?t. Art is subjective and is often a matter of taste and opinion. Maybe if I watch the film again in a few months or years I?ll see it differently?or maybe not.